(COMBO) A combination of file pictures created on August 18, 2020 in Paris shows Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cisse (L) leaving the Elysee Palace after a meeting with the French president on September 10, 2019 in Paris, and Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (R) pictured during his arrival at Felix Houphouet Boigny Airport in Abidjan for a visit on May 10, 2018. AFP
Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse are both being held by rebel soldiers, a senior government official confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.
"The prime minister and the president were driven by rebel soldiers to Kati in armoured vehicles," said Boubou Doucoure, who works as Cisse's director of communications.
He added that both men were now at Kati, a town near the capital Bamako which hosts an important military base.
Soldiers arrested both political leaders in the capital late Tuesday afternoon after launching a mutiny and seizing control of the Kati base earlier in the day.
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